The Peace Centre/Peace Mansion complex is set to be Singapore’s largest collective sale this year
Companies controlled by mysterious mainland investor Gordon Tang have joined forces with a group of local developers to make a successful offer of S$650 million ($474.6 million) for a mixed-use site up for collective sale in Singapore’s upmarket District 9.
Owners of more than 80 percent of the units in the Peace Mansion apartments and the connected Peace Centre commercial complex have consented to the disposal, which would be the city-state’s biggest collective sale of 2021 if completed.
The 1976-vintage property has a gross floor area of 604,578 square feet (56,167 square metres), with the new owners now in line to develop a project of equivalent scale with 60 percent of GFA for commercial and the remaining 40 percent for residential.
The buying consortium for the property at 1 Sophia Road near the Parklane shopping mall is dominated by companies controlled by Tang and his wife Celine, including CEL Development, a wholly owned unit of Chip Eng Seng Corporation, which is controlled by the property power couple; Sing-Haiyi Crystal, a 50:50 joint venture of SGX-listed SingHaiyi Group and Haiyi Properties, both of which are controlled by the Tangs; and Ultra Infinity, a company equally held by builders KSH Holdings, SLB Development and Ho Lee Group.
The offerors will form a joint venture in which CEL holds 40 percent and Sing-Haiyi Crystal and Ultra Infinity hold 30 percent each, SingHaiyi Group said Friday in a filing with the Singapore Exchange.
Fifth Time Lucky
“We have finally come to this stage and successfully found a buyer on our fifth attempt,” said Mohamed Rafig Maideen, the chairman for the collective sale. “The owners are more realistic this round and with the excellent advice and hard work from the agents, JLL, and the lawyers, Lee & Lee, we eventually concluded the sale agreement after intense negotiations on the terms of the contract.”
Gordon Tang and his team are adding another project to their Singapore pipeline
The Peace Mansion/Peace Centre complex had been marketed by JLL to find a buyer for its 319 strata units, of which 232 are commercial properties in a 10-storey front podium block. The remainder of the existing structure includes 86 apartments and a car park with 162 lots in a rear 32-storey tower.
The site for the 99-year leasehold property measures 76,617 square feet, and under a grant of outline planning permission from the Urban Redevelopment Authority, the commercial-zoned property can be redeveloped up to the existing gross floor area, with an in-principal approval to renew the lease for a fresh 99-year term having been previously obtained from the Singapore Land Authority in March 2019.
CEL executive director Michael Ng said Friday in a LinkedIn post that the redevelopment project would comprise retail, F&B, offices and city residences at an estimated development value of S$1.5 billion. At the sale price, the buyers would be paying about S$1,075 ($783) per square foot of completed floor area for the project, which is near the popular St Margaret’s Primary School and other prominent educational institutions.
“With its coveted central location in the Orchard, Bras Basah and Mount Sophia locale and excellent accessibility to six MRT stations within a 600 metre (656 yard) radius from the site, the purchaser will be able to develop a well-connected mixed-use development in this ever evolving and growing locale,” said Tan Hong Boon, executive director at JLL.
Redevelopment Wave
The Peace Mansion/Peace Centre complex is the latest redevelopment project for Gordon Tang, a windsurfing enthusiast turned billionaire who counts Neil Bush, the younger brother of former US president George W Bush, as one of his closest associates.
In May, SingHaiyi Group and Chip Eng Seng teamed up with an affiliate of Hong Kong-listed Chuan Holdings in a joint bid for the en bloc purchase of the building known as Maxwell House at a price of S$276.8 million ($207.8 million). The partners plan to redevelop the 13-storey commercial complex at 20 Maxwell Road in Tanjong Pagar into a combined residential and commercial tower.
The successful District 9 sale would overtake two recent deals to claim the top spot among Singapore’s collective sales this year.
Hoi Hup and Sunway’s September purchase of the Flynn Park apartment complex in the Pasir Panjang area for S$371 million ($276.1 million) set the mark, but UOL and partner SingLand followed in late October with the winning bid of S$550.8 million for Watten Estate Condominium, whose residents had put the 1983-vintage building in leafy Bukit Timah on the block at a S$500 million reserve price.
On a smaller scale, November saw the collective sale of La Ville, a Tanjong Rhu high-rise, which Hong Kong-listed ZACD Group picked up for S$152 million.
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